In the past, to produce an alkylene polyol, such as 1,5-pentanediol, by using a methanol having a cyclic ether group (hereinafter, this is sometimes referred to as “cyclic ether group-containing methanol”), such as tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol, as a manufacturing raw material thereof, a method has been widely known in that a methanol having a furan ring or a pyran ring as the cyclic ether group is decomposed by hydrogenation in the presence of a metal catalyst (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 3).
For example, in Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 1, a method is reported in that 1,5-pentanediol is produced from tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol in the presence of a copper-chromium type catalyst; and in Patent Document 2, a method is reported in that tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol is produced from furfural in the presence of a cobalt-aluminum type catalyst or a copper-aluminum type catalyst, and in addition, 1,2-pentanediol and 1,5-pentanediol are produced from furfural by using a copper-aluminum type catalyst (Example 4).
On the other hand, a method for producing an alkylene polyol by using a metal catalyst other than a copper type catalyst has been reported in recent years; and for example, in Patent Document 3, a ring opening method of a cyclic ether was reported in that the reaction selectivity to a certain bond of a cyclic ether group in the ring opening is high by using a metal catalyst containing rhodium and one or more metal atom selected from rhenium, molybdenum, and tungsten supported on a carrier. In this ring opening method, a method for producing 1,5-pentanediol or 1,6-hexanediol from tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol or tetrahydropyran-2-methanol respectively in the presence of the afore-mentioned catalyst is disclosed.    Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 2,768,978    Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 627,293    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-46417    Non-Patent Document 1: Organic Syntheses Coll. Vol. 3, p. 693 (1955); Vol. 26, p. 83 (1946).